How to child-proof your home
Welcoming a child into your home is such a wonderful experience. One that is filled with both joy and trepidation. When my husband and I conceived our twins, we were living in a two bed, third floor flat. As such, we knew we had a lot of work to do in terms of child proofing our home.
When children are babies, childproofing is pretty simple. It’s as they get older and more mobile, that more needs to be done in terms of child-proofing.
When you first bring your baby home, you’ll need to ensure you provide them with a safe environment. From a safe place to sleep to a safe place for nappy changes and bottle sterilising. In addition, making sure sharp edges of furniture are covered with corner protectors and ensuring electrical cables are tied up and completely out of reach.
As your baby grows and starts to become a toddler, they’ll more active and more inquisitive. This is when you’ll need to up the child-proofing requirements.
To start off, get down to floor level and have a good look around your home. Are there any dangers? From open plug sockets to trip hazards etc. Next up, move up to the eye level of your toddler. From here, you need to look for anything that is within your child’s reach and could pose a potential danger to them.
Window blind cords are often overlooked but it’s so important to child-proof them. You can do this by buying plastic hooks that enable to you wrap the cords around the hook out of reach.
A good alternative to blinds are window shutters. They’re a much more child-friendly window covering option than some designs of blinds and curtains as they don’t have any leads or strings attached.
Shutters are fitted within the window frame so they don’t move around so young children can’t grab any loose elements. Not only are window shutters child friendly, but DIY options make getting the luxury style of shutters just as affordable as blinds and curtains.
DIY shutter blinds can be installed yourself and you could save up to half the price compared to what you’d paid for a typical ‘home design and installation’ service. There is lots of choice available when it to comes shutter blinds. From bay window shutter blinds, cottage shutter blinds and wood hybrid shutters to cafe style shutters and full height shutter blinds.
How did you find child-proofing your home? Do you have shutter blinds? I’d love to hear in the comments below.
